Hopefully this post title has got you intrigued…what is she talking about now you may ask?

Ok, so the Japan part…we recently had two Japanese students come to stay with us. Sana in July and Tsuyoshi in August. We fell in love with them both and we were sad to see them both go home. Sana was easy, she was Tegan’s age and bonded quickly with her, she spoke enough English that we could have a very basic conversation and got on beautifully with all the kids. We were then a little nervous about hosting Tsuyoshi as he was older (16) and we didn’t know how different it would be to host a boy. We need not have worried as although he didn’t speak as much English he quickly became a part of our family. Zane spent the time Sana and Tsuyoshi were with us sharing our bedroom but it did become obvious while setting up for Tsuyoshi how much I need to do in Zane’s bedroom before he got much older.

I’m sure there does come a time when pink lampshades and heart shaped beds are no longer “cool”.

At the same time I had the realisation that something drastic had to be done for Zane I was in a constant state of discomfort about this…

When we moved in to our home four years ago this space was just a weird area near the kitchen where they had a small display cabinet and a guitar on a stand. It was painted a burnt orange and just seemed like a waste of space, that’s why I got the shelves put in and used it as a sort of office space. I got a quote of $2000 to put doors on it, hence the curtains.

Many of you are well aware of my love affair with Pinterest. I could pin away all day long all the while knowing that I will never get the time required to make even a fraction of the gorgeous items pinned onto my boards made. Nonetheless, there I am, scrolling away drolling at all the deliciousness. Until one day I saw a photo that took my breath away. Here it was, what I never knew I always wanted. The most perfect solution to that problem area in our home that prior to this point seemed unfixable. A dream space that HAD to be mine! This is is, check out how beautiful it is http://whimages.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/my-blog-spot-and-blog-roll.html But so many things had to happen first. AND Pete and I set ourselves a bit of a goal that whatever money we spent had to be raised by the sale of other items….

So….

Paint Zane’s heart shaped king single bedframe white and put it in Lily’s room. (this turned out to be the job from HELL)

Move Tegan’s king single white timber bed into Paige’s room.

Sell Lily and Paige’s gorgeous but inpractical single beds (we ended up raising good funds by doing this on eBay with the best eBayer in town, my husband), the Real Estate took this photo when we listed our previous house, but it was my work, honest!

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Get Tegan a double bed as half the household usually ends up in there with her at some stage of the night.

Swap Zane and Tegan’s bedside lights and paint the one going into Tegan’s room.

Get Zane a more masculine single bed.

Got that done. Now that the kids were sorted I could focus on the “nook project”.

By then it was Pete’s Birthday and he decided that he could no longer live without a bigger TV. That suited me fine as I wanted the little TV cabinet for my nook project and so we found a great second hand corner TV cabinet on Gumtree that would fit the TV that he wanted, it just needed to be stained a little darker to match our lounge room and then I could take the other one.

I then needed a desk that I could modify to fit into the space. We found one on eBay and Pete managed to win the bid with only a few seconds to spare, like I said, he is the eBay master! The seller said the desk had some light wear and tear….

FYI, wear and tear means carving your name repeatedly into a piece of wood, I didn’t realise that prior to this purchase!

Here is the space cleared out with the TV cabinet and the desk in place while I try to make sense of all the strange angles…

Then I cut the pieces back, made a false top for the “TV cabinet” which is now a seat with storage underneath. I had to cut up the second set of drawers on the desk to make a leg for one side of the desk. I was really lucky with the desk as the drawers were not attached to the top.

Pete and I then had to remove the bottom shelf and I had to cut back the shelf at the top. Not all that easy. I’m pretty sure I was eating sawdust for many days after. I put a piece of moulding on the cut edge of the shelf to make it look nicer.

As you can see everything has had a coat of paint, including the walls as remember they were orange!

I got a piece of foam cut to size at Clark Rubber and then made the cushion cover (it will need to be remade, shocking job).

Zane was testing it out for comfort, I think it passed.

At this point Pete and I ducked away for a child free weekend in Melbourne and happened to find all the perfect finishing touches..

I made the pinboard (and cut my finger open in the process). The baskets came from IKEA. I included a wall of photos, the frames were all just a collection of unused ones that I had. I just painted them all white (I just used leftover wall paint) and sanded them back to make them look shabby. I printed the photos all out in black and white to keep them within the colour scheme.

I loved this metal wall art, just perfect for our family…plus I did a massive happy dance when it match the colour for the scatter cushions as I had already purchased the fabric!

I made this simple key holder…

I think that is about it. Pete and I are very happy with our efforts and love that we have turned a real mess into a very enjoyable space for the whole family to enjoy. It was a fantastic feeling to get rid of stuff that wasn’t being used well here while also giving new life to other items within our home or the second hand world. Any questions just ask away…